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The closer we come to the official kick off the third-quarter earnings season (officially starts on Tuesday with Alcoa Inc. (NYSE:AA) releasing its earnings report before the opening bell), the more likely it is that we observe weak insider trading activity. Despite that, Insider Monkey continues to compile daily sets of noteworthy insider transactions reported with the SEC.

Seasoned investors and analysts are well aware that there are two kind of insider trading: legal and illegal. The media discusses loud cases of illegal insider trading on a consistent basis, leaving the legal kind of insider trading on the sidelines. Illegal insider trading involves transactions executed by Board members, executives and other individuals who have access to material non-public information related to acquisition announcements, earnings releases or other significant news events unknown to the general public. However, retail investors need not worry about whether an insider transaction is illegal or legal. After all, piggybacking on the initial illegal trade without knowing of the illegality is not considered illegal insider trading. Considering that corporate insiders have superior knowledge about their company’s business developments, current challenges and future prospects than any of us, it is no surprise that their transactions tend to be highly scrutinized by the investment community. Without further ado, let’s have a look at a set of insider transactions reported with the SEC on Wednesday.

At Insider Monkey, we track around 750 hedge funds and institutional investors. Through extensive backtests, we have determined that imitating some of the stocks that these investors are collectively bullish on can help retail investors generate double digits of alpha per year. The key is to focus on the small-cap picks of these funds, which are usually less followed by the broader market and allow for larger price inefficiencies (see more details).

Mini-Cluster of Insider Buying at Transitioning REIT

Two different insiders at Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) purchased company stock in the past several trading sessions. To begin with, President and CIO Mark O. Decker Jr. snapped up 2,900 shares on Wednesday at a price tag of $5.84 each. Mr. Decker purchased an additional 2,500 shares last Thursday for $6.09 each and 2,000 shares last Monday at $6.24 apiece. After the recent string of purchases, the President and CIO currently owns 114,538 shares. Moreover, Board member Linda J. Hall bought 5,000 shares on Friday at a price of $5.95 per share, a purchase that lifted her ownership stake to 39,907 shares.

The equity real estate investment trust that owns and operates income-producing real estate properties, which comprise multifamily, healthcare and other properties located in the upper Midwest states of Minnesota and North Dakota, has seen the value of its shares plummet by 16% this year. In early August, Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) inked an agreement to pre-purchase a to-be-built multifamily property with 150 units and 23,600 square feet of retail space for a cash consideration of $47.6 million. Moreover, the REIT agreed to sell 26 senior housing properties in late August for around $236.0 million. These moves relate to the REIT’s plan to transition towards a pure-play multifamily REIT. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC was the owner of approximately 249,000 shares of Investors Real Estate Trust (NYSE:IRET) at the end of June.